In the era of virtual concerts, at-home art projects and live-streamed events, it seems as though almost every creative industry is finding ways to innovate and share art online.
Yet for New Hampshire’s theater companies, live theater just doesn’t translate into virtual performances during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Theater online isn’t theater,” said Neil Pankhurst, the founder and producing artistic director of Winnipesaukee Playhouse.
Since physically going to see a show can present a safety risk, Pankhurst decided to postpone the Playhouse’s 2020 summer lineup of shows until next year. Pankhurst said he is not interested in putting on shows to be broadcast online, and instead plans to wait “until we can do theater as theater was intended” by having a live audience.
He’s not alone. Other small theaters have had to call it quits while waiting for bans on large gatherings to be lifted. The closures certainly pose a financial threat to Winnipesaukee Playhouse and other companies across the state, especially since theaters and other large gathering places are most likely going to be one of the “later recoverers” from social distancing restrictions, Pankhurst said. The summer theater season is when the Winnipesaukee Playhouse makes the “vast majority” of its money through ticket sales and advertising, but it is also when they spend the most putting on the larger-scale musicals and plays that usually draw in big audiences. Pankhurst said he is confident that with support from donors, the Playhouse will be able to make it through and continue to produce shows in the future.
If the pandemic has been controlled enough by September, Pankhurst hopes to put on some smaller shows.
“Small is now beautiful” in the time of social distancing, he said.
A three-person play called Awe and another show with a cast of two are in the works to be performed in front of small, socially distanced audiences. Shows that are technically uncomplicated and that require fewer actors represent a ray of hope for theaters that hope to keep putting on productions in a time of tight budgets and smaller audiences.
Andrew Pinard, founder of the Hatbox Theatre in Concord, said he hopes to reopen for in-person shows as soon as possible. Though the theater is closed now, cast members in a three-person play are rehearsing virtually in order to be prepared for live performances as soon as state guidelines allow them.
Hatbox tried putting on a ticketed theater event over Zoom video conference, and if the closure lasts longer, Pinard said the company will consider live-streaming outdoor performances. He said the theater, which runs almost on ticket sales alone, has had to get creative to balance safety and financial concerns. “We like constraints,” he said. “The best creativity comes out of having to do things within limits.”
Even though the performing arts were among the first to shut down and likely to among the last to be revived, the escapism and empathy-building aspects of theater are still vital to the community, Pinard said. In a time when “there are so many horrific things going on,” we need to “find an outlet that helps people feel,” Pinard said.
Keith Stevens, managing director of the Peterborough Players, noted that shutting down production has been important not just for audiences but for the actors as well. The company hires actors through the Actors’ Equity union, which has advised its members to contact them if they are asked to work before the pandemic is under control, according to a union press release issued Tuesday.
“I have no intention of putting people in danger,” Stevens said. “We’re not going to be able to open until we are allowed to gather together again.”
And once theaters do begin to reopen, the precautions necessary to ensure the safety of everyone will present a new set of issues. Stevens is considering the issues of how to keep actors far enough apart on stage, keeping bathrooms clean during intermissions or even putting on shows without intermissions, and measures to minimize bottlenecking when audiences enter and leave the theaters.
All of these safety measures must be developed simultaneously with the production of the shows, and with no concrete idea of when it will be safe to reopen, Stevens noted the importance of making sure the company is “nimble” both financially and logistically so that it can move quickly once it becomes possible to produce shows again.
In the meantime, the Peterborough Players are producing some online content in order to maintain connections with their audience. In lieu of the nine productions scheduled to go on this summer, the theater is putting together a series of short pieces called “Bright Spots” featuring members of the company singing songs, performing monologues or reading aloud in clips published on the Players’ website.
Lyn Winter, managing director of Jean’s Playhouse in Lincoln, lamented the loss of the summer season, which would have brought in 60 new hires and a large chunk of the theater’s annual revenue. She said that putting on shows with social distancing measures in place would mean their more than 260-seat theater would be reduced to a fraction of its capacity, making potential ticket revenue too small to be financially viable. While it is nearly impossible to predict when productions can be staged again, Winter is confident that the theater industry will “emerge stronger” from the pandemic.
“People have been predicting the death of theater for several thousand years,” she said. “The fact that technology exists can enhance what we do, but it can’t replace what we do.”
Stevens also emphasized the importance of live theater: “The important thing about theater is that we gather together to share stories, that’s what we do,” he said. “One way or another, some day down the road, we are going to be able to gather again. It may look a little different, it may feel a little different, but that’s what we have to figure out.”